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1 – 10 of 412Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva, Kwabena Osei Kuffour Adjei, Christopher M. Owusu-Ansah, Radhamany Sooryamoorthy and Mulubrhan Balehegn
The purpose of this paper is to assess the status of the open access (OA) movement on the African continent, and if there is any financial or moral exploitation by dominant…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the status of the open access (OA) movement on the African continent, and if there is any financial or moral exploitation by dominant “foreign” world powers. OA provided the African intellectual community with a tool to prove its academic prowess and an opportunity to display cultural and intellectual independence. OA publishing is prone to abuse, and some in Africa have sought to exploit the OA boom to profit from non-academic activity rather than use this tool to glorify Africa’s image and diversity on the global intellectual stage. These issues are explored in detail in the paper.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors broadly assessed literature that is related to the growth and challenges associated with OA, including the rise of OA mega journals, in Africa.
Findings
African OA journals and publishers have to compete with established non-African OA entities. Some are considered “predatory”, but this Jeffrey Beall-based classification may be erroneous. Publishing values that African OA publishers and journals aspire to should not equal those published by non-African publishing entities. Africa should seek solutions to the challenges on that continent via Africa-based OA platforms. The budding African OA movement is applauded, but it must be held as accountable as any other OA journal or publisher.
Originality/value
African scholars need to reassess the “published in Africa” OA image.
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For centuries, Brer Rabbit stories have communicated the values and experiences of enslaved Africans and of indigenous African American culture (Abrahams, 1985; Brewer, 1968;…
Abstract
For centuries, Brer Rabbit stories have communicated the values and experiences of enslaved Africans and of indigenous African American culture (Abrahams, 1985; Brewer, 1968; Levine, 1977). According to Blassingame (1972, p. 127), Brer Rabbit stories are “a projection of the slave's personal experiences, dreams and hopes.” Dunn (1979, p.183) explained that the stories are “paradigms dictating how to act and how to live,” and Stuckey (1977, p.xuii) observed that they “revealed more about slave culture than… whole books on slavery by experts. Levine (1977) maintaned that Brer Rabbit stories survived the experiences of slavery and urban poverty because they were a vehicle by which African American cultural values could be shared by the masses of African American people, and Leslie (forthcoming) observed that urban Black mothers continue to share in these values by teaching their children that Brer Rabbit's tricks demonstrate the importance of “protecting the physically small and weak against the physically big and powerful.”
Eugine Tafadzwa Maziriri, Brighton Nyagadza and Tinashe Chuchu
The purpose of the study was to ascertain the influence of innovation conviction, innovation mindset and innovation creed on the performance of women entrepreneurs in South…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study was to ascertain the influence of innovation conviction, innovation mindset and innovation creed on the performance of women entrepreneurs in South African small and medium enterprises and their capacity for innovation. The study also examined how proactive personality and entrepreneurial education moderate the relationship between innovative capability and women entrepreneurs' performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a quantitative research design and administered a questionnaire to collect data from participants. Since there was no sampling frame available, purposive sampling, a non-probability sampling technique, was used to select suitable respondents who were identified as entrepreneurial women. Data were collected from 304 women entrepreneurs in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The data were analyzed using smart partial least squares.
Findings
The findings demonstrated that innovation conviction, innovation mindset and innovation creed have a positive impact on innovation capability. It was also discovered that innovation capability, proactive personality and entrepreneurial education all positively and significantly impact women entrepreneurs' performance. Furthermore, the results showed that entrepreneurial education and proactive personality had a positive and significant moderating effect on the nexus between innovation capability and the performance of women entrepreneurs.
Originality/value
This study will add to the body of knowledge on women's small business management and entrepreneurship in Africa, two topics that are typically ignored by academics in developing nations.
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Florence Nansubuga and John C. Munene
The knowledge management (KM) models in the African organisations are influenced by the interplay between human agents from diverse societies whose experiences, values, contextual…
Abstract
Purpose
The knowledge management (KM) models in the African organisations are influenced by the interplay between human agents from diverse societies whose experiences, values, contextual information and insights that are perceived controversial in Africa. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the indigenous assumptions related to knowledge and its management in Africa and the perceived contradictions in the existing models by adopting the Ubuntu philosophy.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a perspective lens to examine the existing management practices and propose an integrated framework that is appropriate for the utilisation of the Ubuntu epistemic knowledge management practices and at the same time provide highlights on the perceived paradoxes and how they can be managed to improve knowledge management and people management in African societies.
Findings
The inductive posteriori knowledge approach is perceived to be dynamic, applicable and more desirable in the African societies as it allows organisational managers and their work teams to embrace knowledge construction, dependent on experiences in form of stories and metaphors that demonstrate successful work samples. The Ubuntu dramaturgical knowledge management approach adds value to the posteriori knowledge by refining the rhetoric stories and metaphors into empirical performance scripts that are tailored to the audiences’ expectations.
Research limitations/implications
The paper adapted a perspective view to explain knowledge management; therefore, it was not possible to provide empirical data on the metaphysical and dramaturgical elements that are assumed to influence knowledge management in Africa. However, based on theoretical analysis, the authors have proposed a coherent knowledge management framework based on the interaction between posteriori KM assumptions and Ubuntu dramaturgy.
Practical implications
Ubuntu ideology has been appreciated since it treasures interdependency and interconnectedness among people. Therefore, collaborating partners working in Africa would be expected to act as interdependent agents, whereby this interdependency is perceived as an integral part of the knowledge management process. The proposed Ubuntu knowledge management model is grounded on the posteriori knowledge approach which assumes that experience is the source of knowledge. Through social interactions and experiences sharing, organisational members can create new processes, innovative technologies and dynamic context based performance scripts that can drive productivity.
Social implications
The authors concluded that a coherent framework that is tailored to social interactions and contextual needs of the people and their communities can promote productive knowledge and knowledge management systems in the African contexts. Moreover knowledge management requires one to acknowledge the complexity of Ubuntu ideology in a sense that it recognises the past experiences and contributions of the diverse individuals in the same community/organisation.
Originality/value
This paper focused on examining how the Ubuntu philosophy can promote knowledge development and management strategies that are tailored to social and contextual needs of the organisations in Africa to curtail the perceived paradoxes in the existing knowledge management models.
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Neo Ligaraba, Brighton Nyagadza, Danie Dӧrfling and Qinisoliyakhulula Mhlengi Zulu
This study investigates the factors influencing re-usage intention of online and mobile grocery shopping among young adult consumers in South Africa.
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the factors influencing re-usage intention of online and mobile grocery shopping among young adult consumers in South Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from selected young adult participants using a stratified probability sampling strategy. Smart PLS was used to analyse the data.
Findings
The findings of the study indicate that perceived usefulness (PU), peer review (PR) and attitude (ATT) positively influence continuance intention (CI).
Research limitations/implications
In line with the available literature, there are few prior post-adoption studies that delineate the influence of individual characteristics on digital commerce usage activities. There is high mobile penetration as a result of positive digital commerce and mobile application usage and adoption, creating the need to investigate and better understand the drivers behind, not just adoption and usage, but continued use of digital commerce platforms and applications. Since the sample size is relatively small, further future research studies can test the same model with bigger sample sizes to assess generalisability of the results in different locations.
Practical implications
This study adds to the current literature by concentrating on the extent to which systems and marketing elements influence young adult customers' intention to continue using online and mobile grocery shopping platforms in South Africa.
Originality/value
The study adds value from a theoretical standpoint, contributing to the antecedent factors of the technology acceptance model (TAM), theory of reasoned action (TRA) and stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model and giving marketing academics insights into what aspects drive re-use of online and mobile grocery shopping and on what should be the focus.
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Eugine Tafadzwa Maziriri, Brighton Nyagadza, Brian Mabuyana, Tarisai Fritz Rukuni and Miston Mapuranga
This paper aims to examine how health consciousness, perceived nutrition of cereals, hedonic eating values and utilitarian eating values would influence consumers’ attitudes…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how health consciousness, perceived nutrition of cereals, hedonic eating values and utilitarian eating values would influence consumers’ attitudes towards cereal consumption, willingness to pay for cereals, actual consumption of cereal products, cereal product consumption satisfaction and continuance of cereal consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
The research embraced a quantitative approach. The examination was completed in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa (SA). A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 380 Generation Z consumers of cereal products. Structural equation modelling analysis was used using the smart partial least squares software to test the hypothesized model.
Findings
The results uncovered that the study variables were significantly associated, and surprisingly, the relationship between hedonic eating values and attitudes towards cereal consumption was found to be insignificant. It was also found that attitudes toward cereal consumption positively and significantly mediated the relationship between health consciousness and willingness to pay for cereals, perceived cereal nutrition and willingness to pay for cereals, hedonic eating values and willingness to pay for cereals and utilitarian eating values and willingness to pay for cereals.
Originality/value
This research adds new, fresh knowledge to the established body of knowledge on cereal consumption behaviour. This area has had little research attention in developing African countries like SA.
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Eugine Tafadzwa Maziriri, Brighton Nyagadza, Miston Mapuranga and Tafadzwa Clementine Maramura
This study aims to examine the impact of habitual Facebook use (HFU) on life satisfaction and psychological well-being. In addition, the study examined the impact of life…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of habitual Facebook use (HFU) on life satisfaction and psychological well-being. In addition, the study examined the impact of life satisfaction on psychological well-being. Moreover, the study investigates the impact of social safeness in moderating the relationship between HFU and life satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a quantitative survey design, using a sample of 261 Generation Y students based in Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Scales for data collection were operationalized from prior studies. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The study’s results disclosed that HFU positively and significantly impacts life satisfaction and psychological well-being. In addition, life satisfaction positively and significantly impacted psychological well-being. Moreover, the results showed that social safeness had a positive and significant moderating effect on the nexus between HFU and life satisfaction.
Originality/value
This study contributes to understanding HFU as a precursor to life satisfaction and psychological well-being among Generation Y students. Also, evaluating the moderating effect of social safeness contributes to a more thorough understanding of the link between HFU and life satisfaction. Furthermore, this research aims to add to the body of knowledge in Africa’s communication psychology and social media literature, a field that has received little academic attention in developing countries.
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Dr. Anna Julia Cooper was an early, radical educational pioneer who asked why African Americans were perceived as problematic to society and subjected to economic biases (Berry…
Abstract
Dr. Anna Julia Cooper was an early, radical educational pioneer who asked why African Americans were perceived as problematic to society and subjected to economic biases (Berry, 2006; May, 2007) Her life spanned the period of the Civil War to the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement ,. Reflecting on the Dred Scott decision of 1850 further solidified Cooper’s mindset about dominant, powerful Caucasian men. Cooper’s economic views are examined through legislation continuously tolerating African Americans as economic property for profit, the underemployment of African-American women, women as economically oppressed, and the institutionalization of racism in churches and education which contributed to the success of industry.
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Erik M. Hines, L. DiAnne Borders and Laura M. Gonzalez
This study aims to understand the asset and success factors that contributed to college completion of African American males who persisted through college. Only a dismal 22 per…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the asset and success factors that contributed to college completion of African American males who persisted through college. Only a dismal 22 per cent of African American males receive bachelor’s degrees compared to 41 per cent of White males (Kena et al., 2015).
Design/methodology/approach
The data were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. The authors interviewed two first-generation African-American males from rural backgrounds to capture their experiences of their process to college completion.
Findings
Themes, based in cultural capital theory, that impacted their college persistence were identified within their pre-college experiences, college experiences and post-college perceptions. Recommendations for helping rural African-American males attend and persist through college are offered.
Research limitations/implications
Only two participants from one predominately white institution in the southeastern USA were interviewed. Rural students from other geographical areas might have different backgrounds, challenges, assets and successes. Although the interview questions were based on relevant literature, they may not have covered all key aspects of the participants’ experiences. As in any qualitative study, biases of the researchers and research team may have influenced the results, although these were identified and shared before reading any of the transcripts and then discussed several times during the data analysis process.
Practical implications
Educators not only should try to address the cultural capital limitations of these men but also highlight and build on their cultural assets. These assets include familial and platonic individuals who see their potential for success and encourage them to attend college to become something better than what they see in their community, reverse role models who encourage youth to make different choices than they did, media-based examples of successful Black students, cultural messages of strength and determination (e.g. Million Man March) and the exhortation to be an example that other African-American boys could look up to.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the need for K-12 and higher education institutions to understand how to assist first-generation, rural African-American males in getting admitted to college, matriculating through college and graduating from college.
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Rahabhi Mashapure, Brighton Nyagadza, Lovemore Chikazhe, Gideon Mazuruse and Precious Hove
The main purpose of this research is to investigate factors influencing rural women entrepreneurship development and sustainable rural livelihoods in Manicaland province of…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this research is to investigate factors influencing rural women entrepreneurship development and sustainable rural livelihoods in Manicaland province of Zimbabwe.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative research was conducted in Manicaland province in Zimbabwe. Data were collected through structured questionnaires from 400 women entrepreneurs in various sectors. The participants were in vegetable vending, operating clothing flea markets and cross border trading. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. Structural equation modeling in SmartPLS version 3 was used to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
The study established that women entrepreneurship is driven by financial factors, positive environmental factors, positive psychological factors as well as positive sociological factors for a sustainable rural livelihood.
Research limitations/implications
It is clear that if the discovered challenges are not addressed, sustainability of women entrepreneurship will remain a dream.
Practical implications
The study came up with strategies for improving women entrepreneurship activities. Future research can be done in other areas of provinces to avoid generalization challenges.
Social implications
Many challenges hinder the sustainability of women entrepreneurship. Major impediments to women entrepreneurship comprises inadequate support from government schemes, patriarchal societal structure of the community, lack of relevant entrepreneurial knowledge to manage businesses, lack of collateral security to access funding, time limitation or role conflict to balance family pressures and business.
Originality/value
The study recommends proper entrepreneurship education and training, supportive government schemes and access to network affiliation/connection to sustain women entrepreneurship.
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